USB boot option

USB boot option

The system BIOS can be complicated to someone who is not yet familiar with all of the settings. Here are a few tips to help increase your chances of successfully booting a USB Linux system. If the flash memory stick fails to boot, go back into the system BIOS and try changing some of the following settings (Be sure to take note on any changes you have made). In addition, we have included some other tips to help achieve a successful boot.

BIOS setup tips for USB Boot:

Switch on or off USB keyboard support

Turn off Fast Boot

Disable USB 2.0 support (last resort, this will default to USB 1.1)

Other tips to help you Boot from USB:

These are some other suggestions to help ensure a successful USB Linux Boot:

Unplug USB hubs and extensions (these may draw from the current needed to wake your USB device)

Try using a different USB port. (some frontal ports may not be fully supportive)

Unplug additional USB devices. (I've seen something as simple as an IPod halt a system boot)

Sometimes a USB drive may go undetected at startup. If your drive has an LED, ensure that it either flashes or remains solid during system post. If the drive does not respond, remove the drive, then power the system completely down for 15 seconds, reinsert the drive and try again.

Some laptops using a PCMCIA slot may have troubles booting. You may have to tell Linux to ignore PCMCIA during boot. You can do this in the syslinux.cfg file by simply adding "nopcmcia" to the default boot options or by using a cheatcode before boot.

Also, be sure to check out the USB BIOS boot options section.

The following list of USB BIOS boot options have been thoroughly tested with various Linux USB installs. There may be others but this is meant to be a simple checklist to familiarize you with the boot options and which ones to use. Be sure to check back often as we will be constantly adding new information to this list over time.

Newer BIOS Boot Menu:

Many newer computers detect the USB device as a hard drive (USB-HDD0). In which case, you can press a specific key (F2, F10, F11 or ESC) during system post to access the "Boot Menu". Select your USB DISK from the Boot Menu and resume startup.

Older BIOS Setup method:

If your system is a bit older or uses a simplified BIOS, you may not have a Boot Menu option. In this case you will need to make the system detect and boot your USB device by changing the settings in the BIOS.

Older BIOS Boot Options:

USB-HDD " Preferred boot method"

USB-ZIP "May or may not work"

USB-FDD "Unsupported"

Summary:

Generally speaking, if your system BIOS supports the USB-HDD boot option, it should boot Linux from a large capacity USB flash drive. (a BIOS that supports USB-HDD automatically detects the geometry of the USB Flash drive)

The USB-ZIP option is typically used on older systems that do not support USB-HDD boot. Using this boot option might require modifying the drive geometry to match how the BIOS has been hard-coded to see the device.

Exception: The USB-ZIP boot option may allow you to boot some larger capacity flash drives without drive geometry modification, if your BIOS also lists the flash drive as a selectable hard drive under boot priority. (Typical of the Award-Phoenix BIOS)

Tips:

If your BIOS lists the USB memory stick as a hard drive, you should select it as the 1st boot device.

You should always remove other USB boot options from the boot priority list when attempting to boot from USB-ZIP or USB-HDD to avoid conflicting startup Cues.

The file-system used may also affect the BIOS's ability to detect and boot the drive. If a Fat file-system doesn't work, try Fat32. The partition must also be active or the device will not boot.

Be sure to keep an eye out for BIOS updates from your board manufacturer.

Through experience, we have found that most "recent" Award/Phoenix and AMI BIOS's can generally support USB boot.